throughout this book. The late Emilie Conrad, my wonderful colleague and friend, used to say, “Admit it, Suzanne. We in the bodywork and movement fields are still out in the barn. The rest of academia is up in the mansion discussing the future of humanity, and if we are honest, we are still out in the barn with the animals because of our focus on the wisdom of the body.”
It is time to move out of the barn! Again and again, I see evidence of the split between the wisdom of the body and the logical brain. This lack of understanding of our body wisdom wreaks havoc on our health and well-being and robs us of our potential for happiness and the juiciness and joy inherent in life.
Our bodies are naturally well-calibrated navigational systems once we learn how to listen to them and respect their assessments in any given moment. If we disrespect our bodies and second-guess their messages, they will go mute over time. The loss of our body wisdom leaves us vulnerable, as we are forced to navigate our life with only the signals from the brain and past experiences.
It is our present-moment sensory experience that provides the foundational data to the prefrontal area of our brain for the wisest decision-making possible. Without a conscious sensory connection to the present, we are forced to orient to the past.
People with unresolved trauma histories are at an even greater disadvantage due to numb, frozen, and painful places in their bodies, keeping them from accessing this wisdom.
Amazed and Dazed
Bartholomew is a brilliant physician and an excellent pediatrician whose mind has served him well. When he first entered my world, he was looking for answers to leg pain that had plagued him for years.
During our initial interview, I realized he was looking for a medical, left-brain reason for why his pain persisted even though his allopathic medical worldview had failed to explain it.
In his first craniosacral session, I tuned in to his body’s wisdom and gently took his leg and foot in my hands. He felt a growing shakiness inside, in the area between my two hands. As he tuned in to the exact area of his leg pain, things got even shakier and his leg started visibly trembling.
In order to help him understand what was happening, I briefly explained Dr. John Upledger’s “energy cyst” model, which describes how trauma memory in the form of disorganized, chaotic energy is walled off and encapsulated in the body in order to help the system deal with things that are overwhelming at the time of the trauma.7 I explained that when the time is right, the body naturally wants to let go of this chaotic energy so that it can function better again. I further reassured him that this is a natural body release process, so he could understand and relax into the shakiness and the other sensations that were occurring.
An actual memory surfaced about an accident that had occurred a decade earlier. While Bartholomew rested during a hike in a remote canyon out West, a huge branch fell, glanced off his head, and landed on his leg. He was in shock initially, and others helped to lift off the heavy branch. Bartholomew worried that he had broken his leg because the impact was so powerful, but in the end, he was okay and could hike out of the canyon on his own. He had long since left this incident behind, but his leg had not.
Bartholomew was slightly dazed and totally amazed! The trembling and release from his leg was undeniable. He felt ripples of new awareness enter him as the pain left his leg. When we were done, his pain level was significantly reduced, and it continued to drop.
When Bartholomew arrived for his next visit, his analytical mind was back in the driver’s seat. Even though he was still free from pain, he was second-guessing his experience. His left brain had once again taken over and his body’s wisdom had gone mute. I reminded him of exactly what had occurred in our session. It was as though he had amnesia about the process. It certainly did not fit any model he had studied in medical school.
I realized that he needed more body awareness, more inner-sensation experiences, to overcome this prejudice, so I taught him the Core Embodiment Process that I have been refining for years (see Exploration 2, pages 59–66). Bartholomew has now been doing this body-centered practice for several years. He no longer immediately questions his body’s wisdom. However, he still relies on his mind to corroborate what he is feeling, just to make sure it is real.
Wisdom Ignored at a Price
When Cassie arrived at my office, she was suffering with relentless shin and leg pain. She had recently run in a marathon, and in the second half of the race, her knees and shins had started to ache. She mistakenly thought, if she continued to run, her endorphins would take care of the problem. Instead, it grew steadily worse.
Cassie did not listen to her body but plowed on, letting her mind’s agenda override the obvious pain message telling her to stop. By the time she reached the finish line, Cassie was hobbling, and she had been hobbling ever since.
As we worked together, it became apparent that one of the reasons Cassie was not healing was because she was “angry with my stupid body for not doing what I wanted it to do.” Further, she was not giving her legs the rest they needed in order to heal due to her anger and frustration about how they should be behaving.
In her CranioSacral Therapy session, I held her shins and knees and tuned in to what was going on. The initial sensations under my hands felt really hot and inflamed. I asked her what she noticed when she dropped her attention down into her legs.
Cassie had a hard time getting there at first, but then she registered shock as she began to feel the heat. I explained to her that when tissue is inflamed like hers, no amount of willpower can heal the area if the person is not prepared to work with the body’s wisdom about what it needs.
Cassie went silent for a few minutes, and then she shared how her Asian immigrant family lineage was one of pushing through and beyond the needs of the body in order to survive. Willing herself to do more, go beyond, and not listen to her body was all she knew.
In Cassie’s family, the body was seen as the servant to the mind, whose sole purpose was to further the family and individual standing in their community. This attitude is almost epidemic in our culture today in many ethnic groups.
As I continued to hold her legs, she slowly allowed herself to recognize how her family belief system was impeding her healing process. We dialogued with her legs, and she made a promise to allow them to rest and heal, demonstrating how she valued them. She was able to see that resting did not equal weakness, but it actually was a sign of intelligence — body intelligence, that is.
Within weeks, her legs were well on their way to healing after months of inflammation and pain. With that, Body Myth 5 was dispelled. Cassie was hopefully on her way to greater body wisdom in the rest of her life as well.
Where Do We Go from Here?
These five body myths, or some combination, are alive and well in many people today. Take a moment now and consider which of these are hindering your life.
Awareness is the first step in letting go of them and making a new choice. Until we are aware that they are playing in the background or foreground of our lives, often driving our actions and decisions, we will be unable to choose anything different.
Of course, the second part of this equation is recognizing them as myths. These attitudes are not a part of our true nature. They are adaptations, compensations, and defenses against what has occurred in our lives and those of our ancestors.
When we can recognize these myths for what they truly are — myths — new horizons open up. New choices can
